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By Faith Excellence is Developed, April 21
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
.
Do you ask, What shall I do to be saved? You must lay your preconceived
opinions, your hereditary and cultivated ideas, at the door of investigation. If you
search the Scriptures to vindicate your own opinions, you will never reach the
truth. Search in order to learn what the Lord says. If conviction comes as you
search, if you see that your cherished opinions are not in harmony with the truth,
do not misinterpret the truth in order to suit your own belief, but accept the light
given. Open mind and heart that you may behold wondrous things out of God’s
Word.
Faith in Christ as the world’s Redeemer calls for an acknowledgment of the
enlightened intellect controlled by a heart that can discern and appreciate the
heavenly treasure. This faith is inseparable from repentance and transformation of
character. To have faith means to find and accept the gospel treasure, with all the
obligations which it imposes.
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He may
conjecture and imagine, but without the eye of faith he cannot see the treasure.
Christ gave His life to secure for us this inestimable treasure; but without regener-
ation through faith in His blood, there is no remission of sins, no treasure for any
perishing soul.
We need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit in order to discern the truths
in God’s Word. The lovely things of the natural world are not seen until the sun,
dispelling the darkness, floods them with its light. So the treasures in the Word of
God are not appreciated until they are revealed by the bright beams of the Sun of
Righteousness.
The Holy Spirit, sent from heaven by the benevolence of infinite love, takes
the things of God and reveals them to every soul that has an implicit faith in Christ.
By His power the vital truths upon which the salvation of the soul depends are
impressed upon the mind, and the way of life is made so plain that none need
err.... As we study the Scriptures, we should pray for the light of God’s Holy Spirit
to shine upon the Word, that we may see and appreciate its treasures.—
Christ’s
Object Lessons, 112, 113
.
Through faith in Christ, every deficiency of character may be supplied, ev-
ery defilement cleansed, every fault corrected, every excellence developed.—
Education, 257
.
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